2024-02-10 23:00:08
Thing promised, thing due! Today we present to you the first part of our “mid-season” top-10 in preparation for the June draft!
My evaluations are based on the various viewings that I have done over the last few months (Hlinka-Gretzky Tournament, entire league matches, WJC, etc.) and on the information that I have been able to accumulate and weigh on these players everywhere.
Note that this is not a mock-draft strictly speaking, an exercise that we will do much closer to the draft itself when we know the final ranking of the NHL teams.
For the entire top-10, however, we took into consideration certain trends from NHL clubs noticed over the years.
And for your local pleasure, we’re going to slip in a few words about the Habs here and there…
Let’s start today, as we should, with positions 1 to 5.
1- Macklin Celebrini
In a sense, Celebrini is as consensus a #1 as Connor Bedard was last year. I have yet to see anyone put it anywhere other than the front row. Some even think he could be a better player in the NHL than Bedard, because he is more complete. It’s simple, name any quality, Celebrini has it and in pretty good quantity other than that!
At 17, he dominated the WJC and crushed the competition in the NCAA with Boston University as the youngest player in the league… Two names come up quite often at the level of comparables: Crosby and Toews. That says a lot about the professionalism, leadership and skill level of the young person.
If the Canadian wins the lottery, the selection of Celebrini would, for all practical purposes, ensure (fairly quickly) the success of Hughes and Gorton’s reconstruction plan. We clearly have a future franchise player here, a future superstar. Right on what the Canadian still lacks most cruelly, despite the impressive and intriguing rise to power of Slafkovsky. Need we say more about Celebrini for the purposes of this list? No. But, there may be more to say about the next player…
2- Ivan Demidov
Let’s first dare to ask a few questions: If Demidov played in North America, would there be a real fight for #1 right now? Does the fact that Demidov is Russian cause an unfavorable prejudice against him in the world of scouting?
In terms of raw talent, it may well be that Demidov (Demi-god?) is ahead of Celebrini. He may not be as fast a straight-line skater and his shot seems a little worse, but he has better hands, superior creativity and unmatched lateral mobility. We also notice his incredible balance on skates. Very committed and dynamic, he seems propelled by a tireless engine, always attacking the available space with avidity.
Like Celebrini, Demidov has the profile of a real “ game breaker “. Give him the puck, he will make the difference. He literally crushes everything in his path in the MHL, the Russian junior circuit and could/should undoubtedly play in the KHL on a regular basis on an offensive trio, as evidenced by his staggering statistics of 45 points in 23 games, including 29 to his last 10! For comparison, as the Journal de Montréal recently recalled, Nikita Kucherov had 43 points in as many games in the MHL the season following his draft in 2011…
Ivan Demidov had a monster run through January, averaging 3 points per game:
• 7 games
• 9 goals
• 7 primary assists, 5 secondary assists
• 39 shots on goal
• Opponents outscored 17-0(!) while on the ice at even-strength#2024NHLDraft pic.twitter.com/VNLOEJhTxe— Lassi Alanen (@lassialanen) February 6, 2024
But, as we know, things are rarely simple and “normal” in terms of development in the country of Uncle Vladimir… Demidov’s contract – an individual who is said to be much more pleasant in business than a certain Matvei Michkov – happily ends in 2025 with St. Petersburg.
In the meantime, a debate over whether Celebrini is really better than Demidov could still take place over the coming months. To be continued…
3- Cayden Lindstrom
It would take some nerve not to draft in the top-3 a 6’4, 216 lbs center, hard-working and talented, who skates like the wind and scores at will in the WHL. Who knows if at the end of his career Lindstrom will not be the chosen one of 2024 who will have had the biggest impact in the NHL? We would have already seen something stranger… In any case, despite the presence of young Gavin McKenna, 16 years old, the “future generational player”. Medicine Hat, his junior club, has definitely not been the same since his injury and his one-hand operation: 8-6-2 without him, 19-8-2 with him, Grant McCagg recently reported in his podcast.
With a good training camp, the guy could make the jump directly to the NHL next year and no one would be surprised. At least as good as Byfield at the same age, more scorer, he also has better hands and a little more “nasty” side. His coach even recently mentioned the name of Eric Lindros to our former colleague Nicolas Cloutier to describe Lindstrom’s style of play…
At this point, if the CH does not win the lottery, the wet dream of many fans would be that Lindstrom miraculously slips in the draft to the middle of the top-10. “ Fat chance ”, as we say in Serbo-Croatian…
4- Artyom Levshunov
By doing this exercise, you realize that it is around the 4th row that the “real fun begins” if you know what I mean. The obvious and certain cutting edge talent of the big attackers is already gone and it is from here that we can truly say that “beauty is in the eye of the beholder”, that “man is the measure of everything”, that ” everything is relative », etc.
Very good skater, perhaps just a little less elegant and mobile than Parekh and Dickinson, Levshunov, a right-hander from Belarus, 6’2 210 lbs, seems physically stronger than the other two. Like Parekh, he resolutely appears as an offensive defender, but with a slightly more “pro” style in the NCAA at Michigan. Showing great creativity, let’s say that his risks are generally quite well calculated and that his vision of the game is excellent. Defensively, his reads are not always perfect, but we like his play along the boards, his pivots and his puck recoveries.
Levshunov has a very good chance of breaking into the top-5 as seen on several lists. In my opinion, he is the most complete back in the 2024 auction, with a few defensive fixes. A more offensive version of Reinbacher, but less solid defensively. We would very well see a club like the Blue Jackets selecting him at this rank, they who have replenished the offensive coffers quite a bit in recent years, but they could also turn to the next one on my list…
5- Zayne Parekh
For a “new genre”, very offensive defender, Parekh still shows obvious defensive qualities, starting with his anticipation, his 360° mobility and very good balance/physical strength for his size (6’0, 181 lbs). In terms of raw offensive talent, Owen Beck’s teammate is perhaps the best defender of the vintage and we seem to give him all the latitude wanted in Saginaw which practices a type ofpositionless hockeyat least, with Parekh on the ice.
The offensive engine of his team, we cannot deny his statistics, but above all we cannot deny his vision of the game and his calm with the puck. He also hides his intentions very well. Sometimes, however, I find him a little too calm, even nonchalant without the puck. He almost gives the impression of playing in his pajamas (practical for sleeping on the ice because he plays for so many minutes!) and is not very robust in general.
But here is a future quarterback of the PP1 of any club and a first-pair defender. We could, if desired, accompany it with a slightly more sober left-hander, an option which could perhaps interest the CH, if necessary…
Partial conclusion
I believe that the top 3 risks becoming more and more consensual over the coming months. It remains to be seen whether we will see a debate between Celebrini and Demidov. Not impossible, but in this respect it is a shame that Demidov is playing in Russia…
As for her, it is from the 4th row that the great waltz of defenders could begin and currently, there is no consensus on the order in which they will be drafted.
I thought it was a good idea to go with two right-handers with a high level of talent to start, right-handers being rarer and advanced talent being the quality that should be prioritized the most at the start of the draft. But left-handers Silayev and Dickinson also have their fans…
And the Canadian?
With a small fall for the Habs and a certain improvement at the end of the season for the Senators and the Sabres, it could well be that the CH will be drafted 5th if it does not win one of the two lotteries. Would he then draft another right-handed defenseman this early in the draft after opting for Reinbacher last year or would he instead turn to a forward, an even more pressing organizational need?
Are Levshunov, Pareks and the other 2024 defensemen so superior to Reinbacher and the available 2024 forwards that we once again turn to a mid-top-10 guard?
If Bobrov and company selected a striker, would it be a “ reach » like that of Timmins in 2018 with the Kotkaniemi center? Or could it be that a forward simply deserves to be drafted as early as 5th-6th next June?
We’ll tune in again next Saturday to answer these questions!
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